This invention relates generally to the art of farm machinery, and more specifically, to a connector which allows a tractor to tow a variety of implements for simultaneously carrying out serially acting, multiple earth-treating functions.
Farmers have long recognized the cost-savings benefits to be derived from simultaneously carrying out multiple earth-treating functions with single passes of tractors over fields. Toward this end, a number of devices have been utilized by farmers to allow them to pull two farm implements, one behind the other. One such device is sometimes referred to as a gooseneck hitch. A gooseneck hitch is normally coupled to a tractor at a relatively high vertical position, while an elevated neck thereof extends first rearwardly from the tractor coupling and then downwardly to wheels on which the gooseneck hitch rides to follow the tractor. An earth treating implement is then coupled to the gooseneck hitch at or behind the wheels while another earth-treating implement is attached to the tractor immediately behind the tractor under the elevated neck. A difficulty with the gooseneck hitch is that it normally requires a special adaptation for coupling the gooseneck hitch to the tractor. Further it requires that the tractor not only be attached to a gooseneck hitch, but also that it be attached to the immediately-following implement by means of a three-point hitch, thereby making preparation of the system somewhat difficult and limiting use of the tractor to some extent. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a tractor connector which can be used for pulling at least two earth-treating implements, one behind the other, which only requires a single, standard, universal coupling to a tractor, and in which the single coupling to the tractor is relatively easy to couple and decouple thereby increasing flexibility of use of the tractor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,789 to Pearce discloses a tillage and planter carrier which is to be towed behind a tractor and which has a specially constructed tillage implement suspended from an upwardly arched portion of a main frame thereof while a three-point hitch thereof allows a seed planting machine to be detachably mounted at the trailing end thereof. Major disadvantages of this carrier are that it requires a special tillage implement and that it requires a special raising and lowering mechanism. Since it can only be used with this special tillage implement it offers little flexibility of use. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a tractor earth-treating implement connector which can be used to operate at least two earth-treating implements, one behind the other, which can be used with off-the-shelf implements, which does not require a special lifting mechanism and which can be used with virtually any earth-treating implement made for three-point hitches. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide such a tractor earth-treating implement connector which does not require farmers to change farming practices they have previously used while allowing them to carry out pluralities of the same earth-treating procedures they have been using for years with a single pass of a tractor over their fields.
Another difficulty with the Pearce system is that it is rather complicated in structure, not only requiring the special lifting mechanisms previously mentioned, but also requiring a separate frame for mounting a three-point hitch at the trailing end thereof. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a tractor earth-treating implement connector which can be used to tow a plurality of earth-treating implements, one behind the other, in which an elongated frame extending from a coupling to wheels serves also as a mounting frame for leading and trailing three-point hitches.
Liquid-dispensing earth-treating implements (such as fertilizer and insecticide spreaders) have often been combined with earth tillage implements. There are many patented examples of this such as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,645 to Meiners in which liquid from a tank is dispensed at earth-digging tines. However, such uses have usually been limited to one earth-digging implement used in combination with a liquid-dispensing implement. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an implement connector for allowing the use of a liquid-dispensing implement with two earth-digging implements, one being towed behind the other.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a tractor earth-treating implement connector which is relatively uncomplicated to manufacture and to use.